Judging by the laughs and giggles coming from Ms. Levesque’s classroom at St. Gregory Catholic School, summer classes are no burden for a group of eager, young learners.

Once again, the Algonquin and Lakeshore Catholic District School Board is holding summer classes for younger learners and this year the focus has shifted to math for children in grades one and two.

The board is holding daily classes at 10 sites in the Picton, Kingston, Belleville, Bancroft and Trenton regions.

Dan Finn and Kevin Douglas are once again serving as co-principals for the summer programing and point to the Ministry of Education’s mandate to elevate math scores for the move away from literacy skills to mathematics this summer.

“We’re capped at 16 children at each of our sites, that’s what we’ve determined to be the optimal number for this program,” said Finn. “We’ve moved the programming to math this year and it’s designed for students working at a Level 1 or Level 2 and hopefully over the course of three weeks we will be successful in moving the students up a level.”

In addition to a teacher in each classroom, the board also utilizes the Focus on Youth program, allowing students in Grade 11 to earn extra credit by assisting the young students in their math studies. Finn said it provides an excellent opportunity for the high school students to catch up if falling behind in thei credits needed for graduation.

Douglas said the program is designed for younger students in an effort to keep them at an appropriate level.

“We’re trying to target them at the right age, Grades 1 and 2 when they’re developing number sense, how to manipulate numbers, a lot of estimation,” he said. “We’re trying to get the kids to make that link between estimation and numbers. A lot of the teachers are taking the approach of learning centres, but with games and incorporating that counting into the games.”

And it’s certainly not all work and no play during the school day.

“I think with these grades, with the balance of math in the morning and recreation in the afternoon it helps keep them going,” Douglas explained. “They’ve been to the splash pad, the fire department and that’s the carrot that seems to keep them focussed in the morning session.”

Finn said it is important not to let the children fall behind in match at a young age.

“Certainly the push is for early intervention for students to move those math levels and keep them up to speed,” Finn explained. “The teachers do a great job of keeping everything interesting and when the kids are enjoying the classroom it makes it much easier to learn.”

Students who could benefit from the extra math lessons are identified by teachers before the end of the school year and Finn said arrangements are then finalized to enrol them for the program, which runs at no cost to the students’ families.

The students are all enrolled in ALCDSB schools during the regular school year but are able to attend different schools for the summer program.